More than half (51.5%) of Costa Ricans who plan to vote in the upcoming Oct. 7 referendum will vote in favor of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), surpassing the 42.1% who said they will vote no in this historic election, according to the results of a poll carried out by the firm Unimer for the daily La Nación.

These results include the 53% of those questioned by Unimer who said they definitely plan to vote in the referendum, the nation's first. A minimum of 40% of eligible voters must turn out in order for the results of the election to be binding, according to a decision by the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE).

The poll questioned 1,300 people older than 18 from July 18-26. They were interviewed by phone from their homes after being selected at random.

Those who said they will vote in favor of CAFTA said they believe it will benefit the country economically, while those who said they'll vote against it said it will harm Costa Rica, the daily reported.

Fifty-six of every 100 men polled said they'll vote yes while 38 said they'll vote no, while 46 of every 100 women said they'll support the agreement and 47 said they'll vote against it.

Those from lower economic classes mostly said they'd vote yes, while those of higher incomes tended to answer negatively.

The poll claims a about a 3% margin of error.